22nd Nov 2022, 6:56 PM – Senate Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Workforce Incentive) Bill 2022 - in Committee - Raise income support rate

The majority voted against an amendment introduced by Victorian Senator Janet Rice (Greens), which means it failed.

What did this amendment do?

Senator Rice explained that:

This amendment would raise the rate of income support to all income support recipients to $88 a day—to above the poverty line. I know the government is going to say, 'You're just making a political point.' This is not a political point. This is an attempt to improve the lives of millions of Australians who are living in poverty, who are starving, who are suffering from malnutrition, who are suffering from scurvy, who cannot afford to live in a home at the same time as putting food on the table or at the same time as paying their medical bills. We can afford this, and this parliament—this government—should be doing this. While they are not doing this, they are saying, 'We're going to go ahead with the stage 3 tax cuts and give the richest people in our country—the billionaires, the wealthy—$250 billion over the next 10 years.' That's the choice that's being made.